Tom Brady’s recent performance and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians’ coaching style drew speculation of tensions between the two of late.
The Bucs quarterback opened up, however briefly, about the speculation Sunday in the post-game press conference following the team’s 27-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Speculation of tensions ranged from differing offensive styles between Brady and Arians to some calling for Arians’ job.
Particularly, Brady’s former teammate Rob Ninkovich said Arians’ isn’t a good fit for Brady. The Athletic’s Michael Lombardi recently wrote an in-depth article on why Arians and Brady don’t mesh, noting that Arians had no plans to adjust his offense to suit Brady’s skillset.
“It’s just external noise that when you’re losing, that’s what you deal with,” Brady said in Sunday’s postgame press conference. “I love playing for the guys that I play with (and) the coaches. The whole organization has been unbelievable.”
“I certainly have to do a better job the last four weeks of the year,” Brady added before making a quick exit as the press conference lasted less than three minutes.
Monday Night QB
Brady offered more on his regular Monday Night Football pregame appearance according to Joey Night of the Tampa Bay Times.
“Any time you lose games, a lot of people want to place blame, especially in the media, and they want to pit one player against another player, or a player against a coach and so forth,” Brady said according to Knight.
“So when you win, you get to deal with all the great questions and so forth, and when you lose, you’ve got to deal with the questions of why you’re losing and who’s to blame for losing and all that,” Brady added per Knight. “But when you’re on the outside, that’s just what you deal with. When you’re on the inside, we don’t think like that”
Arians-Brady Relationship
The past four weeks haven’t been pretty with the Bucs going 1-3 during that stretch. Brady has thrown seven interceptions in those games. Arians hasn’t minced words when asked about his quarterback’s performance.
“Other than the deep ball, I think he’s getting confused a few times with coverages that might be causing some inaccurate balls,” Arians said in a Nov. 23 postgame press conference according to the Boston Globe. “I don’t see it at all in practice. We’re not missing the deep ball at all in practice — that’s for sure. It’s just a matter on Sundays of hitting them.”
Arians spoke with Tracy Wolfson of CBS Sports before the Bucs-Chiefs game regarding his critique of Brady, per NBC Sports’ Mike Florio.
“It’s not criticism, it’s honesty,” Arians said according to Florio.
Florio added that, “Arians and Brady separately told Wolfson that the two men have a good relationship.”
Brady reiterated as much on the Monday Night Football pregame.
“I’ve got a great relationship with B.A. (Arians), and we talk every day. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and how he runs the team and so forth,” Brady said according to Knight.
The Bucs now have a bye week where Arians, Brady and company can sort out some of its bigger issues.
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Tom Brady Sounds off on Coaching Tensions